Twitter is looking for ways to ‘memorialise’ the accounts of deceased loved ones

Yesterday, Twitter announced it was going to do a clear out of all inactive accounts in Europe.

Issuing a tweet, the social media platform said that anyone who hasn't logged in within the last six months would receive an email and if they didn't log in again, their account would be deleted. And although this seems well and good to clear out old spammy accounts and fans pages, it raised a lot of concerns from people who feared the accounts of their loved ones were about to vanish. Hitting Twitter with anger, many users urged the site to think before clearing accounts as many people use the platform to look back at old thoughts and conversations they had with deceased loved ones.

We’ve heard you on the impact that this would have on the accounts of the deceased. This was a miss on our part. We will not be removing any inactive accounts until we create a new way for people to memorialize accounts.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) November 27, 2019

Twitter then apologised for any confusion and told users that they will keep them posted with an update on how they can memorialise the accounts of people who have passed away. In the meantime, Jason Scott of Archive Team posted a call out to people who have have accounts they want to save belong to people who have passed away. He told Buzzfeed News that he was sceptical Twitter would actually do anything and so, his team have a way to achieve accounts if needs be.

ATTENTION USERS OF TWITTER. Did someone who know or know of make the huge mistake of dying before clicking through a 2019 Terms of Service for their twitter account? Do you want to honor their memory? Please fill out this form: https://t.co/rsMBPsXtrR

— Jason Scott (@textfiles) November 26, 2019

Here's hoping Twitter post an update soon. As Facebook have a way of marking the accounts of people who have passed away, we're sure Twitter will introduce a similar tool.